RAC: Drivers ‘dodged the pothole bullet’
23/04/2024 Vehicle owners ‘dodged the pothole bullet’ in what is normally the worst three months of the year for breakdowns, according to the RAC. |
A40 park and ride site built – with no road to access it
23/04/2024 Oxfordshire County Council has almost finished work on an 850-space park and ride site, but delays mean it will not be in use for years. |
Wales to ‘correct’ guidance on 20mph speed limits
22/04/2024 The Welsh Government will change its guidance on 20mph speed limits, the transport minister has said. |
Auditors warned over relief road 'iceberg'
19/04/2024 A councillor has asked Shropshire Council’s external auditor to investigate concerns the North West Relief Road will 'completely bankrupt the council'. |
How the government can support road improvements
16/04/2024 Jake Michael, RS Bonds, sets out a number of ways the Government can help local authorities improve the condition of the local road network. |
Toad rescuers help record number of amphibians cross road
11/04/2024 Toad rescuers in Bath have broken a new record by helping the highest number of amphibians cross the road in 14 years. |
Councils publish pothole battle plans
10/04/2024 Local authorities have published which pothole-stricken roads will benefit from the first tranche of an over £8bn package of reallocated HS2 funding. |
Council responds to ‘Daventry Banksie’ pothole complaints
08/04/2024 West Northamptonshire Council has responded to an anti-pothole protester with a computer-generated image of a roadside sign laden with song titles. |
Oxfordshire signs first scheme under new 'brownfield fund'
28/03/2024 Oxfordshire County Council is the first local authority to secure project funding through Homes England's Brownfield, Infrastructure and Land (BIL) Fund. |
Norfolk caught in bitter battle over bats
27/03/2024 A council leader has launched an attack on Natural England after the environment watchdog effectively blocked a £274m road scheme due to its impact on bats. |
DfT hands councils £38m for road safety
22/03/2024 Ministers have announced £38.3m to improve the safety of 17 high risk local roads in England. |
ALARM: Pothole-riddled roads need £16bn investment
19/03/2024 The condition of roads in England and Wales has continued to decline despite councils spending £143.5m filling in two million potholes this financial year. |
‘Toxic’ 15-minute city phrase cut from Oxford local plan
08/03/2024 Oxford City Council has removed mention of ‘15-minute cities’ from its local plan, claiming the concept has become ‘too toxic and incendiary’, The Times has reported. |
Pothole-preventing robot passes first road test
08/03/2024 An autonomous robot designed to detect and fill cracks on roads has passed its first test outside of a laboratory. |
Lambeth scraps LTN
08/03/2024 A low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) trial in Streatham has been suspended with immediate effect following disruption to bus services and ahead of construction work. |
Work begins on Oxford traffic filters
26/02/2024 Work has started on a number of streets in Oxford to prepare the way for six traffic filters as part of a trial aimed at reducing traffic in the city. |
UltraCrete improving road safety near Shrewsbury
26/02/2024 UltraCrete has joined forces with Highway Workforce to repair and replace a failed carriageway frame and cover on a busy road near Shrewsbury. |
Council road maintenance reaches five-year low
26/02/2024 Road maintenance by local authorities in England has dropped by 45% over five years, the RAC has revealed. |
Plymouth council leader applauds city’s ‘war-time spirit’
26/02/2024 The leader of Plymouth council has applauded the ‘war-time spirit’ of the city’s residents after a Second World War bomb was safely detonated at sea. |
Street Scar: why the utilities firms ruin our streets and how to stop it
19/02/2024 Nicholas Boys Smith, founder and chairman of Create Streets, explains what needs to be done to help local authorities prevent 'street scarring'. |
February most dangerous month for ‘pothole prangs’
13/02/2024 Motorists have been warned that February is the most dangerous month for ‘pothole prangs’ as research reveals a dramatic rise in pothole damage claims. |
Council sued after cyclist hits pothole
06/02/2024 Staffordshire County Council is facing legal action after the triathlete Paul Hughes hit a pothole while cycling breaking multiple bones and damaging a lung. |
Councils 'have tightened pothole payout criteria'
05/02/2024 Compensation paid by councils for damage caused by potholes has fallen by more than a half, with some giving out ‘next to nothing’. |
Hants seeks to avoid cost risk on £125m scheme
02/02/2024 Hampshire County Council is facing a funding gap on the A326 North Waterside Improvements scheme, if cost increases go beyond a current estimate of £125m. |
Second council U-turns on pesticide use
01/02/2024 Cambridgeshire County Council has agreed to reintroduce chemical weed killer, following Brighton's recent call to recommence pesticide treatment. |
TfL hands boroughs another £80m for streets
31/01/2024 Transport for London (TfL) has announced up to £80.4m for boroughs to improve public transport, make walking and cycling safer and create new school streets. |
Newcastle CAZ generates £2.4m
31/01/2024 The Newcastle and Gateshead Clean Air Zone (CAZ) brought in more than £2.4m in its first 11 months of operation. |
Westminster revamps emissions-based parking charges
30/01/2024 Westminster City Council will revamp its parking schemes so that residents and visitors are charged based on their vehicles’ tailpipe emissions. |
‘10,000 years of Cornish history’ brought to light
29/01/2024 Archaeologists have excavated more evidence of Cornwall’s ancient past while carrying out improvement works on the A30, the local council has revealed. |
Councils get new steer on motorbikes in bus lanes
23/01/2024 The Department for Transport (DfT) has updated its guidance for councils on allowing motorcycles to use bus lanes. |
‘Staggering’ two million vehicles damaged by potholes last year
12/01/2024 The AA attended more than 600,000 incidents involving vehicles damaged by potholes last year, new figures released on National Pothole Day today reveal. |
First-of-kind tool links road casualties and deprivation
12/01/2024 Transport for London has launched a dashboard which shows how deprivation is linked to higher levels of death and injury on the capital’s roads. |
Velocity’s low carbon interventions help prevent and repair potholes
11/01/2024 With National Pothole Day upon us once more, highways maintenance specialists Velocity discuss their innovative spray-injection patching technique. |
Potholes: the drivers’ biggest pain
10/01/2024 Jack Cousens, head of roads policy at the AA, discusses the scourge of potholes and what councils should do to fix the local road network. |
Pothole claims up record 40%, insurer reveals
09/01/2024 The number of pothole-related claims increased by a record 40% last year when compared to 2022, the latest data from Admiral Car Insurance has revealed. |
Council’s parking fine income up 50%
08/01/2024 Buckinghamshire Council brought in £1.4m from parking fines in 2023, a 50% increase compared to 2022. |
London boroughs’ share of HS2 pothole fund confirmed
20/12/2023 Allocations for a £235m funding pot aimed at fixing London’s pothole-strewn roads have been confirmed by the Government. |
Mayor Burnham criticises fee-paying clean air zone
14/12/2023 Public investment in buses and taxis will improve air quality in Greater Manchester faster than a fee-paying clean air zone (CAZ), Mayor Andy Burnham says. |
Live Labs Centre of Excellence open for business
08/12/2023 An £8.5m Government-funded research project into building and maintaining roads with low-carbon and recycled materials now open for submissions. |
Government axes Brum's £2.7bn PFI deal in shock 'betrayal'
01/12/2023 Birmingham City Council's leader has accused the Government of 'betrayal' by axing the authority's £2.7bn highways Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract, in a move that could lose the authority more than £500m of roads investment. |
Edinburgh to spend £55m to make fleet LEZ compliant
28/11/2023 Edinburgh City Council is set to spend £55m replacing obsolete vehicles and ensuring its fleet complies with new environmental rules. |
‘Worst October in history’ for pothole breakdowns
27/11/2023 October this year was the worst on record for pothole-related breakdowns, according to the AA Pothole Index. |
AI robot could help address ‘pothole crisis’
23/11/2023 A self-guiding robot capable of identifying and repairing potholes using artificial intelligence (AI) technology could help tackle the blight of potholes. |
Councils failing to fix potholes could face funding cuts
22/11/2023 Local authorities who fail to hit road resurfacing targets could see their funding withheld from a national pothole fund. |
£8bn of HS2 savings to be spent on ending pothole ‘blight’
17/11/2023 Transport secretary Mark Harper has confirmed the allocations of an £8.3bn plan to resurface England’s pothole-marked roads, set out in the wake of HS2 cuts. |
RAC sees record third quarter 'pothole call-outs'
10/11/2023 The RAC has dealt with the highest number of pothole-related breakdowns seen in any third quarter since its records began in 2006. |
Nine on 'flexible' Barnet highways framework
08/11/2023 Barnet Council has appointed nine contractors to a new four-year highway maintenance framework worth around £75m. |
Councils respond to King’s Speech
08/11/2023 The Local Government Association (LGA) has responded to proposed legislation announced yesterday in the King’s Speech. |
London borough trials pothole repair machine
06/11/2023 Redbridge Council is trialling a spray injection patching machine to fix potholes across the borough. |
Major road network set for £2.6bn second funding round
03/11/2023 A promised £2.6bn for local road upgrades will be in the form of a second round of major road network (MRN) funding, it has emerged. |
DfT teases more detail on multi-billion roads spending plans
03/11/2023 The Department for Transport has given fresh detail on the £8.3bn of ‘additional’ local highway maintenance funding due to HS2 cuts. |
Glasgow clean air bid gets all clear
31/10/2023 A legal challenge to Glasgow's Low Emission Zone (LEZ) from a local business has failed. |
Khan puts £10m into street works co-ordination
31/10/2023 London mayor Sadiq Khan has announced a further £10m for his Infrastructure Coordination Service (ICS), which aims to reduce the delays caused by street works in the capital. |
Costain named strategic partner on Bradford's £250m investment plan
30/10/2023 Costain has been reappointed as Bradford Council’s strategic delivery partner, in a contract worth up to £5m with an initial run of two years. |
AA seeks new pothole cash as councils face cut
30/10/2023 Councils ‘desperately need’ more highway maintenance funding to address the deteriorating condition of local roads, the AA has said after its worst September fixing ‘pothole-related’ breakdowns for five years. |
Oflog moves to expand remit
30/10/2023 The new Office for Local Government (Oflog) watchdog has proposed to widen its scope to five new service areas. |
Councils await clarity on top-up cash for major schemes
27/10/2023 A number of major local road schemes are hanging in the balance while authorities are left unsure if ministers will stump up the extra cash pledged in the wake of cutting back HS2. |
Air quality rules continue to trouble Bath area
27/10/2023 A council that had ‘officially passed a government milestone’ for cleaning up toxic air breached legal limits as traffic returned after the pandemic, according to recent data. |
Concern over state of roads hits record high
20/10/2023 Half of drivers say the state of local roads is their top motoring concern – a record high since the RAC began asking for motorists' views on road conditions. |
Controversial Oxford LTNs made permanent
19/10/2023 Three low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) in Oxford are to become permanent, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet decided this week. |
Boroughs to get opt out from future ULEZ-style schemes
13/10/2023 Legislation that will enable London boroughs to opt out of future road charging schemes has been welcomed as ‘an enormous step forwards in local democracy’. |
Councils' parking revenue approaches £1bn
13/10/2023 The income councils raked in from parking surged to almost £1bn in the last financial year. |
£1.3bn local road upgrade pledge unravels
12/10/2023 Doubts have arisen over the Government's pledge that it will deliver 70 local authority road schemes |
Exclusive: DfT drops self-assessment process
10/10/2023 The Department for Transport has ended the highways self-assessment process, removing the incentive element of local maintenance capital funding. |
15 minute cities 'don't exist'
09/10/2023 Civil servants are battling to explain to ministers that concepts like ’15-minute cities’, said to restrict people’s ability to shop, ‘don’t really exist'. |
Sinkhole swallows up bin lorry
06/10/2023 An investigation has been launched after a refuse collection vehicle in North Wales was partially swallowed up by a sinkhole. |
No dates for HS2 pothole cash
05/10/2023 The Government has admitted it does not have a timescale for the billions of pounds for road resurfacing that it announced after the decision to curtail HS2. |
Place directors under ‘immense pressure’ publish strategic objectives
03/10/2023 Place directors have called for action on planning, infrastructure and the environment, including a financial regime enabling councils to build more affordable and ‘climate-ready’ homes. |
Road conditions add flood risk to pothole ‘crisis’
27/09/2023 English councils received hundreds of compensation claims for flood damage in recent years as they struggled to maintain roadside drainage, according to study. |
Tower Hamlets to remove LTN road closures
21/09/2023 Tower Hamlets has decided to remove its low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) road closures despite the majority of affected residents supporting the measures. |
Councils cut back on road resurfacing
13/09/2023 The number of miles of road in England resurfaced or given life-extending treatment is at its lowest point in five years, according to an analysis of government data by the RAC. |
Councils ‘sitting on’ £3bn from developer contributions
13/09/2023 Councils in England and Wales are reportedly 'sitting on' £3bn allocated for new community infrastructure. |
Reinstate ringfencing for pothole repairs, MPs say
12/09/2023 The APPG for better roads has issued a report calling for the Government to restore ringfencing and multi-year settlements for local road maintenance. |
London to expand 20mph limits
12/09/2023 Transport for London (TfL) has announced 65km of new 20mph speed limits to be introduced across eight London boroughs by the end of the year. |
Street Manager limitations cost councils millions
08/09/2023 The Local Government Association has released a report it buried three years ago covering the financial impact of the Government's Street Manager software. |
Newcastle axes LTN
04/09/2023 A trial low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) scheme in Newcastle will not be made permanent, the city council has announced. |
South East Councils to consider devolution of vehicle excise duty
01/09/2023 The devolution of vehicle excise duty (VED) will be among the options expected to be considered by a London Finance Commission-style investigation. |
RAC urges councils to install ULEZ signs
29/08/2023 Local authorities surrounding London have been advised to install signs warning drivers of today’s expansion of the capital’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ). |
Wet July sees rise in pothole-related breakdowns
21/08/2023 This year is set to be one of the worst on record for damage caused by potholes, according to the AA, after July saw pothole-related breakdowns up a fifth. |
Six-in-10 drivers support ‘noise cameras’
18/08/2023 The majority of drivers want to see cameras installed to catch drivers who rev their cars unnecessarily or whose vehicles have illegally loud exhausts. |
DfT faces Court of Appeal challenge over kerb heights
16/08/2023 A disability campaigner has won the right to take her case to the Court of Appeal in battle over the Department for Transport's minimum kerb height guidance. |
The great pothole repair failure
16/08/2023 The UK has fallen far behind other countries when it comes to funding pothole repairs. Asphalt Industry Alliance's Rick Green discusses what needs to be done. |
Government slashes pothole repair funding by £2bn
14/08/2023 The UK has fallen behind other high-income countries when it comes to funding repairs in pothole-ridden local roads, council chiefs warn. |
Driving out pollution
25/07/2023 Cllr Rezina Chowdhury, deputy leader of Lambeth Council, discusses how her London borough is phasing out diesel to protect residents’ health. |
Councils pay out £11m in pothole-related compensation
24/07/2023 Over the past four years councils have paid out more than £11m to drivers who successfully claimed their vehicles had been damaged by potholes, RAC reveals. |
Guidance on new road condition surveys pushed back
07/07/2023 The Department of Transport's (DfT) guidance on the new regime for local authority road condition surveys is delayed until next summer, a DfT official says. |
Bus lane fines making councils up to £3.7m a year
03/07/2023 Bus lanes and bus gates meant councils received up to £3.7m from penalty charge notices (PCNs) in 2022, according to new research by Forbes Advisor. |
Scrap proposed infrastructure levy, council chiefs say
16/06/2023 Council leaders, developers, and others have written to levelling up secretary Michael Gove criticising the Government’s proposed infrastructure levy. |
‘Year of the Pothole’ declared as breakdowns up 29%
24/05/2023 AA has called on drivers to make 2023 the ‘Year of the Pothole’ by reporting every blemish they find on the road network as figures show breakdown increase. |
20mph speed limits more effective with speed bumps
22/05/2023 Drivers are more likely to comply with a 20mph speed limit if there are also physical traffic calming measures in place, report finds. |
Pothole-related breakdowns up nearly 40%
28/04/2023 RAC patrols helped more than 10,000 drivers who had suffered a pothole-related accident in the first three months of the year, new figures reveal. |
Traffic collisions more likely to affect poorer neighbourhoods
18/04/2023 People living in London’s more deprived areas are twice as likely to be killed or seriously injured in road collisions, new research reveals. |
Drivers face ‘pothole postcode lottery’, FoI reveals
17/04/2023 Some councils in England are taking over a month on average to fix potholes once they have been reported, a freedom of information (FoI) request has revealed. |
High Court grants permission for ULEZ judicial review
13/04/2023 The High Court has granted permission for a judicial review into the proposed expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to outer London this summer. |
High concentration of potholes in North, survey finds
12/04/2023 Half of the 20 councils in England found to have the highest concentration of reported potholes are in the North, according to a new survey. |
Councils share £50m for road safety schemes
06/04/2023 Ministers have announced 27 local schemes that will share £47.5m road safety cash - a cutback on the 45 schemes floated in last autumn's mini budget. |
Clampdown on utility companies leaving potholes
31/03/2023 Reduced traffic congestion has been promised by Government as a result of a clampdown on utility companies leaving potholes after carrying out street works. |
Record £14bn needed to fix pothole-ridden local roads
21/03/2023 A record £14bn is now needed for local authorities to tackle the local roads maintenance backlog, according to the annual ALARM survey. |
Number of ‘substandard’ bridges falls to 3,090
17/03/2023 The proportion of council-managed road bridges classified as ‘substandard’ has fallen slightly over the past year despite local authority budget limitations. |
Budget’s lack of social care support ‘disappointing’
16/03/2023 Council leaders welcomed the new funding in yesterday's budget but were disappointed by absence of investment in social care, health and children’s services. |
Shell is helping power the journey towards a circular paving industry with Shell Bitumen LT R, a new product for roads that uses plastics destined for landfill as part of the additives to make the bitumen.
Effective Energy Group is now offering its support to the 40 Local Authorities who have received a share of the £430m to deliver their projects on the ground by surveying properties and installing measures.
Dougie Belmore explains how one of the main interfaces between you and Bacs is about to change.